A method and device for separably depositing sheets in a stack are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/856357 entitled "METHOD AND DEVICE FOR SEPARABLY DEPOSITING SHEETS IN A STACK", filed concurrently with the present application on May 14, 1997, said application being incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. Therein, a method and device are disclosed for enabling imprinted sheets output by an office machines, such as a printer, telecopier, copier, etc., to be stacked one on top of the other with the sheets belonging to different processes or print jobs being separated one from the other by divider films. The divider films are placed onto the stack from a magazine deposit on the office machine after the particular process is completed to facilitate the identification of the stacked print jobs. At least one dimension of the divider films is greater than the corresponding dimension of the deposited sheets so that the divider films project laterally from the stack.
The divider films permit the simple division of the stack into associated sheet groups corresponding to the print jobs. Any sheet group can be removed from the stack in order to further process it individually. The divider films can be reused so that the divider film removed from the stack with the associated sheet group, can be placed back into the magazine and be used again.
To find a group of sheets associated with a specific process from the stack of separated sheet groups, it is necessary to manually search through the deposition stack until the desired sheet group is observed. The divider films projecting from the stack facilitate the search since the entire stack can be leafed through, group by group, with aid of the divider films.
Although the disclosed method and device greatly facilitate the separation of the stack of sheet groups so that selected sheet groups can be readily removed from the stack, identifying a particular group in a thick stack having a large number of deposited sheet groups belonging to different processes can be tiresome and time consuming.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved method and device for separably depositing sheets in stack, wherein individual groups of sheets can be identified quickly and easily.